The Epiphone John Lennon Revolution Casino is an exact replica of the Casino Lennon famously sanded and modified and used for the latter part of his Beatles career. It was also, famously, the guitar Lennon played at the Beatles final concert on the roof of the Apple Corp. building in London.
One of two Epiphone John Lennon Casinos — the other was based on the Casino Lennon bought in 1965 before he modified it — the Revolution Casino features the original body shape based on mid-60′s Epiphone specs, a 5-layer maple and birch body, and a mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard and pearloid parallelogram inlays. The back of the headstock is stamped with Lennon’s original serial number. The pickguard has been removed, as Lennon did with his Casino before sanding it.
The attention to detail is incredible, helped by the fact that Epiphone and Gibson engineers inspected the original Casino at The Dakota building in New York where it forms part of Lennon’s estate and is listed in the estate’s inventory as ‘The Revolution guitar’, hence the name of the re-issued version.
Even the nickel-plated dog-eared P-90 pick-up covers are accurate, as is the string spacing. Only a combined 1965 John Lennon Casinos were made, each one hand numbered.
In addition to its appearance on top of the Apple building in London’s Savile row, Lennon’s Casino appears in the film Let it Be, and was played by Lennon on The White Album and Abbey Road. Lennon continued to play the Casino during solo and Plastic Ono Band live performances and recordings.
You can find out more about the John Lennon Revolution Casino and John Lennon 19665 Casino, as well as info on the Casinos played by fellow Beatles Paul MacCartney and George Harrison on Epiphone’s website here and Gibson’s website here.
How much for this Beauty? It’s a fine guitar.